236 THE BEGINNINGS OP LIFE. 



due in each case to some morbid quality of the pellicle 

 itself. These organisms were observed in the middle 

 of the month of April (1869), in an infusion of turnip 

 leaves, which had been prepared fourteen days pre- 

 viously. All stages of development could be seen in 

 different parts of the pellicle. The new organism first 

 manifested, itself by the presence (in a uniformly granu- 

 lar layer) of an aggregation of 8-20 larger and more 

 refractive particles, which gradually became marked 

 off from the surrounding granules by a thin but distinct 

 bounding membrane. The granules continued to in- 



FIG. 61. 



Mode of Origin and Development of an Embiyo of uncertain 

 nature. ( x 800.) 



crease in size , and at a later stage the containing sphere 

 was seen to have grown larger, whilst the granules 

 had assumed a crescentic arrangement (c). On their 

 concave side there was a tolerably large refractive 

 globule about T1 nhn/' in diameter, which exhibited the 

 most distinct oscillations and more or less extensive 

 to and fro movements in the otherwise clear central 

 space. In other specimens this central globule had 

 become even larger and the granules had closed round 



